At 5 p.m. on that day, the film studies department will throw a big reception in the Clock Tower Lounge at UNCW’s Fisher Student Center.

Part of the purpose is to celebrate publication of “The Directory of World Cinema: France,” which Palmer co-edited with Charlie Michael of the University of Miami. Palmer, a specialist in the subject, will give a talk on “What’s So Great About French Cinema?”

The program will also celebrate the re-launch of Film Matters, the undergraduate journal of cinema studies, whcih Palmer co-f0under (with his wife Liza) and co-edits. Two new issues of Film Matters are being released simultaneously, with papers written by university undergraduates and much of the editing work done by UNCW students.

Palmer’s book “Brutal Intimacy: Analyzing Contemporary French Cinema” came out in 2011 from Wesleyan University Press.

The directory is a bit more ambitious: an encyclopedia-style history of French film from its earliest days. Palmer and Michel solicited articles from a number of film scholars. At the book’s center are eight longer essays, covering what Palmer called major “tendencies” or trends in French cinema. (Palmer himself contributed a piece on women filmmakers — a broad topic since in recent years, something like 40 percent of the directors of French film releases are women.)

Around these are arranged shorter articles and appreciations of specific films, directors and other filmmakers.

“We wanted to emphasize films and filmmakers that fell through the cracks,” Palmer said in a phone converation.

The directory, he added, takes something of a revisionist approach, challenging the view — once promoted by Francois Truffaut in Cahiers du Cinema and elsewhere — that French films were dull and derivative prior to the advent of the “New Wave” in the 1950s. Not to throw stones at “The 400 Blows” or “Day for Night,” but Palmer also wants to highlight the achievements of the French “quality” films of the 1930s and ’40s and the works of such earlier innovators as Jean Renoir.

Among other topics, the Directory focuses on documentaries, avant garde film and the horror genre, which hardly exhausts the subject. At least one other volume of the Directory is planned, Palmer said, and a third volume is a definite possibility.

“Directory of World Cinema: France” comes out officially March 15 from Intellect, the academic publisher which has a partnership with UNCW Film Studies. (Among other things, the house maintains an office at UNCW and helps publish Film Matters.) “It’s great having the presence of a major publishing house on campus,” Palmer said.

The new book costs $25 in the paperback edition.

Submit Your Comments

Name

Required

Mail

Required, will not be published

Website

Comment

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive. For more information, please see our Comments FAQ.

About This Blog

This is an emporium for all things literary: occasional book reviews, local book news, items about authors (mostly from the Cape Fear area but occasional visitors) and miscellaneous rants.

The usual author is Ben Steelman, feature writer and book columnist for the Star-News. He’s that shaggy, slightly smelly character you spot lurking in the back aisles of your local bookstore. Physically, he has more than a passing resemblance to Ignatius J. Reilly, hero of John Kennedy Toole’s “A Confederacy of Dunces” — some observers have noted other parallels as well.